


Reconnection

by 10k_au



Series: Reconnection [1]
Category: Z Nation (TV)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 19:02:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12019050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/10k_au/pseuds/10k_au
Summary: Set a  long time after the season three finale , 10k is down to his last bullet and he isn't doing great . Lonliness is creeping in ... but he isn't going to be alone for a lot longer.  Friend or foe ? I guess we'll find out.





	Reconnection

The world had gone to shit a long time ago . But 10k had rolled with it for the majority , until the worst thing had happened, the one thing that he’d denied himself to think about for so long , pretending that it wasn’t an eventuality . But it was, and it had now happened. 10k had run out of bullets. Not just the bullets in his gun , not just that at the loose ones that he carried in his pockets . He hadn’t seen a single bullet as he travelled for … what had to be at least months . How many he couldn’t tell you, not exactly . He just knew that it had been too long and the likelihood was that there simply wasn’t enough of them left . For a long while he held the last one close , unwilling to fire it . Scared that if he did , then he would use it at the wrong time and die knowing that he’d messed up . But sometimes life came down to one fact, that one fact was that you couldn’t always match up to your desires and to what you thought was important. The stress of knowing that he was walking alone with only one bullet had him up at night , determined not to go to sleep somewhere that he may wake up surrounded by Zs gnawing at the door. He always needed to know the way out, he needed to know that it was clear , and he needed to be alert . That meant being awake 24/7 .

He was tired , and if he were completely honest with himself, he was more than a little terrified . With his rifle he hadn’t been alone , not really. It was as if he’d had a bodyguard stuck to his side , he was untouchable and invincible . He had been anyway . Now he was truly alone for the first time since his father had …. Since his father had left him , and he was jumpy . His feet were scuffling on the pebbly track as he moved out of the city and one wrong move made a sound so loud that he wanted to throw up . But yet again , it was just him , alone . No zombies , it was him that had made the sound . 

“ C’mon … you’re such an idiot . Giving up isn’t an option. “ 

10k spoke to himself a lot now . Half the reason was because staying silent and hearing nothing but the distant growl of the undead was sending him mad. The other half was because … he kind of missed having companionship. His murmurings continued on and off , something that he would have been embarrassed by had he not known that there wasn’t anybody around near or far to listen to him . Hell , he wasn’t even sure whether Citizen Z was still out there. For some reason , that bothered him more than anything else, like being a religious person that suddenly had a feeling that their God had abandoned them . Who was there to protect him now . Himself ? Was he capable enough ? 

His mind was wandering for hours , and he thought suddenly , that his own thoughts and incessant need to talk to himself were what was making things worse . Maybe complete radio silence was better? Maybe your mind closed itself off and protected itself . AH , he was still doing it , this ruminating . 

A snap . 

10k’s head flew to the direction that it had come from . Instinctively his rifle went with it . His finger had stayed unmoved on the trigger for so long that it flexed by itself , and it released the last bullet . He regretted it instantly , knowing that if he didn’t feel so much like he was being watched, he probably would have growled or even screamed out loud . This wasn’t like him . He was losing himself and he hated it . The shot had disrupted some shrubbery , buried itself in a tree trunk , but he knew for sure now that somebody was there , blood on the bark . Somebody had passed by that tree . Somebody who was injured . His thoughts split two ways again , half of him wanted to turn and run in the other direction , or find a way to creep up on the ‘intruder’ ( which was how he saw them , despite being on the road) . The other half though , was relieved. He wasn’t alone , Jesus … how much had he needed to know that there was another human being within his reach . Now he did. He wanted to talk to them . He wanted to reach out and feel their physicality. Either way … he had to find where they were first . 

One foot after the other, he passed as silently as he could over the stones and towards the tree line . He wondered if they were as curious about him as he was about them . Did they have a group at some point , would they even understand 10k? Did 10k himself even make sense anymore , or had he lost the linguistics that he’d struggled so hard to hold onto? 

“ Is someone there ? I have a rifle, your best shot is to come out . “ 

Best shot , haha . Well that was good, his own sense of humour was still intact . The lie came easily from him , and he didn’t feel bad about it . It was eat or get eaten in this world , lie or die . They didn’t know that he was out of bullets . For all they knew he had the world's largest collection of most powerful and most rare shells and rounds. Was he trying to convince himself now ? Why was he wasting energy on that ? 

Another Snap . Whoever this was wasn’t the most subtle or stealthiest of people , how was it that they’d survived to this point with a lack of grace and tact so severe . Oh. Oh no . Slowly he lowered the gun , one of his hands shaking, the other yet to catch up . He was too tired , he was too tired and he’d missed something . What had he missed ? How could someone survive this long without learning to be quiet ? The answer … they couldn’t have. So the sounds were .. they were lures . A lure set in a trap . A trap . He span , raising his gun as if to bring the butt down hard into the chest of whoever was behind him . But he was too slow , and the hard blend of metal and plastic never made it , instead the barrel fell into the hand of the man, his other hand a blur as it came up and the palm connected hard with 10k’s nose and head. 

It hurt , oh GOD did it hurt . It was the worst pain he’d felt all year ( or what he guessed was a year). But it wasn’t what hurt the most. What hurt the most was the back of his head connecting with a rock as his fall through the air ended and his relationship with the dusty street began . A crack , a shimmer of pain and the taste of blood … and then it went dark . 

 

Light. 

Light so bright that he thought the universe was imploding . 

No. 

Someone had taught him the words once .

Concussion. 

10k peeled his eyelids apart slowly , the daylight threatening to burn his retinas, his pupils blown too wide , so wide. So much light . Too much . It took him an awful long time to remember how he might have come to have concussion . The bullet , the road . The trap . Through the pain that was enveloping him , he shuffled. This brought to his attention that he was tied to something . A chair .. God how long had it been since he’d sat in a chair. 

“ Sorry about that .. “ 

The voice . This voice was female. There were two people , there were at least two other people alive in the world and one of them was talking to him . It was ecstasy , it was amazing … it scared the living shit out of him . He squinted, trying to make himself more comfortable so that he could settle his vision and see the woman who was talking . 

“ What … What have you done, where have you …” 

His own voice was rough and patchy . He was so thirsty . The concussion . Shit he’d hit his head so hard. Had he hit his head that hard ? Or had they done something to him ? He coughed and fidgeted more, trying to get free or at least figure out what, if anything , they’d subjected him to while he’d been unconscious . The female voice sounded again and when it did it was closer, much closer … right in his ear. He froze , unsure of how to react … waiting for the words to finish so that his scrambled brain could make sense of them . 

“ We didn’t know how you’d react …” 

She said , tone light . A voice that now he listened to it more, he was sure he’d heard before . Like some twisted head trauma induced dejavu . 

“ It’s been so long since we saw each other last … “


End file.
